Real estate firm starts construction of 37 MW solar park in Tuzla in BiH

Deling Invest from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s third-largest city began preparatory works at the site of its future solar power plant of 36.9 MW. IT is scheduled for completion by the middle of next year.

One of the first utility-scale photovoltaic projects in BiH reached the construction phase. The location is in the Poljana zapad business zone, in the village of Šićki Brod on the outskirts of Tuzla. It spans 31 hectares, of which the 550 W panels are planned to be installed on 24 hectares. Local company Deling Invest said the solar park would have a peak capacity of 36.9 MW.

Annual output is estimated at 40.4 GWh, according to a video that it published earlier. The firm added that the ground beneath the panels would be covered to prevent vegetation growth.

Developer picks east-west structure solution for its solar arrays outside Tuzla

The Deling Invest 1 solar park project is for six fields with east-west facing arrays. The developer, originally from the real estate sector, said it would reconstruct the roads in the area.

Preparatory construction works are underway. They include regulating the Mlaka creek at the site. The facility is planned to have 12 transformers.

The solar park, valued at EUR 30.6 million, is scheduled to be completed by the middle of next year.

EPBiH developing projects in same area to replace coal with photovoltaics

Another project in Tuzla, a coal hub in the country’s north, is for a 56 MW photovoltaic system at the site of an ash and slag dump of the local thermal power plant. It is part of the decarbonization plan of state-owned energy utility Elektroprivreda Bosne i Hercegovine (EPBiH).

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, the country had 107 MW installed at the end of 2022, twice more than one year before. Herzegovina, the southern region, hosts a range of major solar power projects, up to 500 MW, but almost all are in the early stages.

Norway-based Greenstat and its local partner GP Toming are an exception. In Grude, twenty or so kilometers from the Adriatic Sea and fifty kilometers from Mostar, they are building a photovoltaic system with a peak capacity of 50 MW, the biggest by far in BiH, and an estimated annual output of 65 GWh. It is scheduled to be completed by the end of September.